Blog Article
Is Alex Mortensen A Good Hire For UAB?
The Blazers needed a steady hand after the Trent Dilfer disaster.
They might have found one.
UAB named Alex Mortensen its eighth head football coach on December 5, 2025, promoting the 40-year-old offensive coordinator after a two-month interim audition that included one of the biggest upsets in program history. The hire comes after a “voluminous” search that included names like Western Michigan’s Lance Taylor, Navy OC Drew Cronic, Presbyterian’s Steve Englehart, and even Skip Holtz.
That’s the part UAB doesn’t want to say out loud. When your top target is an OC at SMU and he still passes, when multiple FCS coaches get vetted and none of them bite, the “voluminous search” starts to look less like due diligence and more like desperation.
Mortensen didn’t beat out the field. He was the last man standing.
But that doesn’t mean he’s the wrong guy. Here’s why this hire makes more sense than people think—and where the concerns are real.
The Résumé Is Legit
Mortensen isn’t some random warm body elevated because he was the last man standing.
- Nine years on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama (2014-2022), contributing to three national championships
- Worked directly with six quarterbacks—Blake Sims, Jacob Coker, Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa, Mac Jones, and Heisman winner Bryce Young—three of whom are current NFL starters
- Broyles Award nominee in his first year as UAB’s OC
- Set UAB’s single-season school record for yards per game (450.0) in 2023
- Averaged 415.6 yards of total offense per game across three seasons as OC
- Son of the late Chris Mortensen, Hall of Fame NFL reporter for ESPN—the football bloodlines run deep
Before anyone rolls their eyes at “analyst-to-coordinator” pipeline coaches, remember where some of college football’s best offensive minds came from. Sarkisian. Kiffin. Daboll. Locksley. O’Brien.
Mortensen mentored under all of them.
The Interim Audition Was Extraordinary
Forget the 2-4 record as interim for a second.
Look at what actually happened.
- Game 1 as interim: Beat No. 22 Memphis at home—one of the biggest upsets in UAB history. Backup QB Ryder Burton went 20-for-27, 251 yards, 3 TDs. The offense converted 9 of 13 on third down.
- Final game at Tulsa: Approximately 40 UAB players sat out after a teammate stabbed two other players at the Football Operations Building hours before the previous week’s USF game. Mortensen held the team together and won at Tulsa anyway—UAB’s first road win in three years.
That Tulsa game is the one that matters most.
It had nothing to do with scheme or play-calling. It was pure leadership. Roughly half his roster refused to suit up. Two of his players were recovering from stab wounds. His program was national news for the worst possible reasons.
He won anyway.
That tells you something no résumé line ever could.
The Dilfer Context Matters
You cannot evaluate this hire without understanding the crater Mortensen is stepping into.
Trent Dilfer went 9-21 in two and a half seasons. He never won a road game. He never won two games in a row. His teams ranked last in scoring defense in the AAC. Fans stopped showing up. Recruiting cratered. And his sideline behavior—the tirades, the phone calls minutes before kickoff, the bizarre Louisville volleyball recruiting pitch on UAB’s own podcast—alienated everyone in the building.
Now Dilfer is back at Lipscomb Academy, telling the OutKick Hot Mic podcast that he never wanted the UAB job in the first place.
- He said he felt “a burden” and was “vehemently opposed” to taking the position
- He said AD Mark Ingram “waterboarded” him into meeting
- He said his “job at Lipscomb is exponentially better” than UAB
- He blamed the players’ lack of “competitive temperament” for his failures
Meanwhile, Mortensen inherited that same roster and beat a ranked team in his first game.
The Concerns Are Real
This isn’t all sunshine and optimism.
- No prior head coaching experience. Mortensen has never been a head coach at any level before the interim tag. He was an analyst and coordinator. The jump from “calling plays” to “running a program” is massive.
- The 4-8 record doesn’t disappear. UAB finished 4-8 in 2025—its third consecutive losing season. Mortensen went 2-4 as interim. Two of his four losses were blowouts (48-18 to USF, 42-14 to Rice).
- UAB’s resources are limited. The program operates on one of the smallest budgets in the AAC. Dilfer’s buyout of $4 million was considered too expensive for the school just one year before they finally pulled the trigger.
- The coaching search told the real story. Casey Woods (SMU OC) emerged as the top target. Multiple FCS and FBS coaches were vetted. Lance Taylor. Drew Cronic. Steve Englehart. Skip Holtz. None of them took the job. That’s not UAB being picky—that’s the market telling you what it thinks of this position under this AD with these resources.
- Mark Ingram’s track record at AD. Ingram hired Dilfer over Bryant Vincent—who had gone 7-6 as interim and won a bowl game. Vincent is now rebuilding Louisiana-Monroe. UAB players begged the administration to keep Vincent. Ingram ignored them and went with the celebrity hire. That decision cost UAB three years of progress.
If Ingram is the one making this call again, that’s a legitimate reason for pause.
Why It Still Works
Here’s the counterargument—and it’s a strong one.
Mortensen knows what UAB is. He’s not walking in blind like Dilfer did. He’s been in Birmingham for three years. He knows the roster, the facilities, the recruiting territory, the budget constraints, and the culture challenges. He isn’t going to show up and publicly trash the school he works for.
He’s an offensive identity coach. UAB’s offense under Mortensen set school records. He developed Jacob Zeno into one of the most efficient QBs in the country in 2023. He has Ryder Burton – who looked like a different player in the Memphis game – as his projected starter for 2026.
He’s already recruiting. UAB signed 41 players from the transfer portal in January. He told The Banner he’s been working “basically every day, pretty long hours most days.” The early signing period and portal window don’t wait for grand introductions.
The players trust him. That’s the part you can’t manufacture. When 40 guys sit out and the remaining players still compete and win for you, that’s not scheme. That’s belief.
Our Verdict
Is Alex Mortensen a good hire for UAB?
He’s the right hire for UAB right now.
This isn’t an endorsement of his ceiling. We don’t know yet if he can recruit at a high level, manage a full staff, or navigate the NIL/portal landscape as a head coach. Those are open questions.
But here’s what we do know:
- He’s not a celebrity experiment
- He’s not someone who thinks he’s “too good” for the job
- He actually wants to be there
- He’s shown he can lead in a crisis
- He knows the program inside and out
After three years of Trent Dilfer treating UAB like a pit stop he never wanted to make, what the Blazers need more than anything is a coach who gives a damn.
Mortensen gives a damn.
That’s the floor. And for a program digging out of a 9-21 crater with a player-stabbing-teammate incident still fresh in the rearview mirror, a high floor might be exactly what the doctor ordered.
The real question isn’t whether Mortensen is a good hire.
It’s whether Mark Ingram will give him the resources to succeed where Dilfer never could.
